“Do you see why Im upset?” This was the night before Barrett was to leave for his active duty in San Diego and the ideal plan was being thwarted by little annoying things, tired bodies, and distracted minds. We finished finals on Tuesday (YEAH!), spent Wednesday driving to Cincinnati to visit the creation museum, rustle through books at Barnes and Noble, walk across the bridge to another state, hotel lobby hop to see the Christmas decorations, watch kids ice skating on the seasonal outdoor rink, and gawk at the oldest, largest, portable train display in the US before heading home. Barrett left for Virginia to see his best man/friend graduate from Marine OCS (#1 in his class!!) the next day and flew back on Friday in time for the rehearsal and dinner of our other friends who were getting married the next day. I was rushing around decorating the house, picking up tuxes and uniforms, cleaning, writing letters, hanging out with Betsy and flying on other various errands. The next day we had our last pancake breakfast with Betsy before the crazy wedding day. It was a blast and a bit weird to see a wedding again after ours! Especially with Barrett walking the aisle with someone else! =0) We got home around 6 and tried to take some Christmas pictures in front of our Charlie Brown Christmas tree in our sweet outfits with Betsy shakingly holding the camera and yelling at Barrett that she knew how to work it. =0) Well, my battery died so we got his camera and it died so we finished quickly so Barrett could get to packing and sewing on his rank patch as it was placed wrong. I went to pick up a pizza, a movie, and a notebook for Barrett and returned to learn I bought the wrong one, thus the opening comment of this email. After pricking his finger innumerable times through the thick material and me being annoyed that I got the wrong notebook we were able to talk it through with clenched teeth. Perfect!
Then Betsy came to eat with us and calmly took her pizza to the next room because, as she claimed, she wouldn’t miss Barrett because she never sees him anyway. Woa! We both know how much she loves Barrett and that she was having a bad day so we tried to gloss over it. After eating dinner we went up stairs to finish packing and I took up the joy of sewing the patch and pricking my finger. Then we put the movie in only to find out I got the wrong one! So, in one day, I lost his keys, got the wrong notebook, got the wrong movie, couldn’t find Betsy’s hearing aid, and couldn’t find my credit card. Sweet!
God is good. Despite the circumstances and threat of poopy moods and a wayward goodbye, we had made fun memories and enjoyed our time together. So after a rainy 5am wakeup call, a cancelled flight in the morning with a rush to catch a new earlier one, we had our final good-bye before his 18 day tour on the Nimitz. What a blessing to know that our God is sovereign in all things and will give both of us what we need in this time. I look forward to how He will work in both our lives and the stories that we will share of God’s goodness, humor, and faithfulness when he returns.